Life is an exercise to express the InExpressible.

The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple or Tiruvarangam is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ranganatha, a reclining form of Hindu deity, Vishnu located in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India. We visited this temple in Sept 2010. Today let me share the mythological story related to this temple. Lord Brahma, the Lord of Creation in Hindu Mythology was once in a state of deep meditation and in His supreme trance got the gift of the Lord Vishnu's idol, "Ranga Vimana" and was told by the Supreme Lord that there would seven other appearance of such idols on earth - Srirangam, Srimushnam, Venkatadri, Saligram, Naimisaranya, Totadri, Pushkara and Badri. The idol was then passed over by Brahma to Viraja, Vaiswatha, Manu, Ishwaku and then finally descended to Rama. Lord Rama, himself an avatar of Vishnu worshipped the idol for a long time, and when he returned victoriously from Sri Lanka destroying Ravana, he gifted it to King Vibhishana as a token of appreciation for his support for Rama against his own brother, Ravana.

When Vibhishana was going via Trichy enroute to Sri Lanka, he was tricked by Lord Vinayaka. Though Vibhishana supported Rama, he was basically an Asura, and hence the Devas wanted to stop this idea of an Asura taking Lord's supreme form to his Kingdom. They requested the help of the God of Happiness, Lord Vinayaka and the Lord accepted the plan. Vibhishana, while on the way back to his Kingdom, passed through Trichy, and wanted to take his bath in the river Kaveri and do his daily rituals. However, he was perplexed as the idol once placed in land, could never be removed and had to be in that place forever.

As a solution, Vibhishana tried to find someone to hold the idol while he was taking bath and found under the disguise of a cowherd boy. As per the plan, when Vibhishana was fully into water, kept the idol firmly on the sand in the banks of Kaveri. On seeing this, the angry Vibhishana chased the boy to punish him, but the boy kept running and climbed over the rock near the Kaveri bank. Finally caught the boy and hit him on the fore-head, who then revealed himself to be Lord Vinayaka. Vibhishana immediately apologized and the Lord gave him his blessings after which Vibhishana continued on his way to Lanka.

The place on which the Ranganathan idol was kept was later covered in deep forests due to disuse. It is discovered when a Chola king chasing a parrot finds the idol accidentally. He then establishes the Ranganathaswamy temple as one of the largest temple complexes in the world. The rock to which Vinayaka for escaping, now forms the famous temple of Uchi Pillayar Kovil.

Most dynasties that ruled the South (Dravidian land)- Cholas, Pandiyas, Hoysalas, Nayakkas - assisted renovation and assisted in the observance of the traditional customs. The temple finds mention in Tamil works of literature of the Sangam Era, including Silapadikaram, though archaeological inscriptions are available only from the 10th century AD.

Bhagavad Gita is such medicine, that gives three fold benefits. Spiritual Religious and Practical for day to day life. Bhagavad Gita and entire literature about the Ancient Indian wisdom (that includes Bhagavad Gita, Purana, Upnishad etc) undoubtedly provides enormous ideas about spiritual life. Bhagvad Gita talked about Hindu religion philosophy, the concepts of God, Avatara. Here are some useful interpretation of Bhagavad Gita slokas, that provides a unique insight to applied that knowledge into our day to day life. Equilibrium

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत।

अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम्।।7।।

yada yada hi dharmasyaglanir bhavati bharata |

abhyutthanam adharmasyatadatmanam srjamy aham || (4.7)

(Whenever there is a decline of righteousness, O Arjuna, and rise of unrighteousness, then I manifest Myself! )

This Sloka has obvious religious meaning of Avatara, God. As being a management professor, he talked about management concept of equilibrium, that is famous in economy, management and even in science. We know about price determination by demand and supply curve in micro economics. A organisation should have feedback system for improvement. It is about restoring back to stability in any unstable system. Innovation

(Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so also
the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters others that are
new. )

It has simple meaning that when shirt / dress is old, we remove that and put on new one. Same way, this soul finds new body when the present body is longer useful. It seems, it has only spiritual idea is about life, life after death etc. It also explains very important principle called innovation. Innovation is buzz word, nowadays. The Management Gurus are talking about sustaining competitive advantage, how to become competitive / innovative etc. The basic principles for that are here in Bhagavad Gita. The basic requirement for innovation is we have to give up our old ideas. In Organisation context it is called mindset inertia.If one is willing to destroy this mindset inertia, then only progress can happen. There are many such knowledge points in Bhagavad Gita about management, and day to day life. Our ancestors were so great and extra ordinary people, that they encapsulate multi-dimension in Ancient Indian Wisdom. Benefits From his own experience and observation, he found many changes in the people, who read Bhagavad Gita regularly. So he strongly recommend to read Bhagavad Gita regularly, sincerely with faith and devotion. Many ideas in Bhagavad Gita are very very important for the youngsters. Here are the three obvious and important changes in a person, who reads Bhagavd Gita regularly. 1. We will develop great character within ourselves, that is a great transformation. The below are characteristics of great character.

(He for whom no one is put into difficulty and who is not disturbed by
anyone, who is equipoised in happiness and distress, fear and anxiety,
is very dear to Me.)

We will not be afraid of anyone and no body should be fear from us. We should not inculcate any kind of fear in anyone. That develops a very unique character. This characteristic is one of the hallmark of true character.

Gentleness:

Deep faith and conviction in life, should be co-exist with broad mindedness. Both are equally important.

2. Sincere reading of Bhagavad Gita over longer period of time, helps us to develop enormous capacity to withstand non-sense in life.

(O son of Kuntī, the
non permanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their
disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance
of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion
of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.)

It is surprising that, sometimes, we do not able to handle non-sense in life. Life is full of non-sense also, you can not run away from non-sense. Life is like a roller coaster ride. Sometime, we lack that kind of perspective about life. That is the reason, even teenager sometime commit suicide for trivial matter. In this country India one third of population does not have proper food to eat. The strength to withstand such misery is still resident in Indians, so those people are not committing suicide due to hunger. They are much more stronger. We are the blessed one, that we get timely proper meals. Our Youngster will get such Titiksha to withstand against small, trivial matter, when they will read Bhagavad Gita. 3. We will build enormous faith in life. The faith is essential to progress, whether it is materialistic progress, religious progress or spiritual progress.

(A faithful man who is dedicated to transcendental knowledge and who
subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and having
achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do
not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul
there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.)Faith is extremely important, for anything that we do in our life.The faith and devotion are the greatest benefits, that one achieve by reading Bhagavad Gita genuinely and seriously.Cardinal PrincipalsBhagavad Gita has lots of cardinal, important principles, that never go wrongs. If one understands those principles then faith will go several folds. Few of them are here:

Every student must understand this sloka very well.

न हि ज्ञानेन सदृशं पवित्रमिह विद्यते |

तत्स्वयं योगसंसिद्धः कालेनात्मनि विन्दति ||४- ३८||

na hi jnanena sadrsampavitram iha vidyate |

tat svayam yoga-samsiddhahkalenatmani vindati || (4.38)

(In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental
knowledge. Such knowledge is the mature fruit of all mysticism. And one
who has become accomplished in the practice of devotional service enjoys
this knowledge within himself in due course of time.)If a student contemplate on this sloka, he can definitely progress in education.

(The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Son of Pṛthā,
a transcendentalist engaged in auspicious activities does not meet with
destruction either in this world or in the spiritual world; one who
does good, My friend, is never overcome by evil.)

Even though all principles are important we have to believe in this principle particularly. The good that we do, nothing goes waste. This is the greatest strength on which you can lead your life. Today people wants quick return. Our education system is also may be teaching this. One should not have that kind of expectation for quick fruits for good work. Please contemplate on this sloka

Law of conservation of divinity.

मत्तः परतरं नान्यत्किञ्चिदस्ति धनञ्जय |

मयि सर्वमिदं प्रोतं सूत्रे मणिगणा इव ||७- ७||

mattah parataram nanyatkincid asti dhananjaya |

mayi sarvam idam protamsutre mani-gana iva || (7.7)

(O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.)Divinity can neither be created nor can be destroyed. Divinity can only be transformed from one form to another form. The latest research in particle physics about God Particle also, describe this same principle.

Faith

बहूनां जन्मनामन्ते ज्ञानवान्मां प्रपद्यते |

वासुदेवः सर्वमिति स महात्मा सुदुर्लभः ||७- १९||

bahunam janmanam antejnanavan mam prapadyate |

vasudevah sarvam itisa mahatma su-durlabhah || (7.19)

(After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders
unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such
a great soul is very rare.)Bhagavad Gita is highway towards supreme divine. Just give up, all your doubts, questions, thoughts. Just have faith.

Devotee never perishes

क्षिप्रं भवति धर्मात्मा शश्वच्छान्तिं निगच्छति |

कौन्तेय प्रतिजानीहि न मे भक्तः प्रणश्यति ||९- ३१||

ksipram bhavati dharmatmasasvac-chantim nigacchati |

kaunteya pratijanihina me bhaktah pranasyati || (9.31)

(He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.)

SummaryBhagavad Gita is all about bringing faith. The faith is the greatest motive force not only for spiritual matter but also even in our material life. So far lot's of great people have attracted by Bhagavad Gita. Dr. B. Mahadevan concluded with just two quotes."When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of external tragedies and if they have not left any visible or invisible effect on me, I owe it to the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita "

The Gita was preached as a preparatory lesson for living worldly life with an eye to Release, Nirvana. My last prayer to everyone, therefore, is that one should not fail to thoroughly understand this ancient science of worldly life as early as possible in one’s life.

At the end, Dr. B. Mahadevan suggested that if such great people are benefited by Bhagavad Gita, then we should also follow that path of Ancient Indian Wisdom. Declaimer: This blog article is not verbatim of speech by B. Mahadevan. I have put my best effort to capture the essence as per my understanding, my interpretation. Any corrections, comments, suggestions are welcome.

The number 7 has specific significance. As I wrote earlier, our existence has 7 layers. White color is made of 7 different colors. Musical notes SURA are 7. In telecom/datacom world, OSI protocol model has 7 layers. In Human body, we have 7 Chakras or energy points, that are represented as blossomed lotus flower. In India, we have 7 holy cities known as Sapta PuriRecently, I attended, enjoyed Art of Living Satsang with senior teacher Arunji. He mentioned these 7 holy cities are also co-related with 7 Chakras or energy points in our body. Each Chakras or energy points is associated with different Ragas.

I thought, using Google map, if I draw path from city associated with Muladhara Chakra, to city associated with Sahasrara Chakra, how the map looks like? Here is the map.

I attended an interesting international blogger conference this Sunday 6th Jan 2013. Here are the key takeaway points.The first speakers was Alok Kejriwal, Digital Entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of Games2Win. He explained the below 10 points.

Observe Problem: He observed at Mumbai parking a taxi is very difficult. (We Bangalorian also daily facing traffic jams. )

Get Inspired: He got inspiration to build iPhone game app Open Taxi -2. (I had written a short poem about Bangalore traffic and broadcasted over Radio Citi 91.1 To Listen to, click here)

Be very open minded: and

Listen to the hidden message: They noticed many people had copied their application in few months. The professional staff was agitated, however Alok calmed down them. If someone is stealing our game apps, means the game developed by us, is worthy.

Innovate: His team developed Parking Trenzy, similar but generic game, not specific to any city for Android (Google Play Store) His game is number 1 popular game in US market.

Make your consumer as sales people: Viral marketing.

Be Reactive, proactive, All active: If you are proactive and then audience will become hyperactive. He shared, his experience. He became online at specific time to address all the mail/message/comments from Pre-teenager people of specific country. He answered even question like what does CEO mean. The target audience became super charge to know that CEO himself is answering.

Smile: He mentioned about something to become natural and positive on social media. (I missed this point)

Measure: App developer should be aware about user's interaction with app, with minute details. He captured all details about customer with Google Analytic. At which turning point, people fail to park the car. How many people cross specific level etc. He suggested (during QA) that we as blogger, should use Google Analytics to find out number of daily visitors, out of them, how many are unique visitors, where they belongs to, what pages they visit, how much time they spend etc.

Improve

In addition to all the above skill points, he gave all credits to Master, his grace for his success.

He also talked about engaging people on social media. He cross maximum limit of his Facebook contacts. Daily, he wish Happy birthday to many friends from his Facebook contacts. He add "JGD" at the end. so few of them asked back the meaning. Then engage all the people who wish HBD that person about JGD. It s like hacking Birthday persons' wall to talk about JGD and promoting Art of Living.

One should make story out of nothing. Just imagination. (I wrote a story about naming ceremony of my daughter in the form of her auto-biography. Many people liked it, you may also like it). Write something unusal on your blog. For example, He noticed that he got chance to meet Guruji, whenever he wears T-shirts. He wrote blog article about it. :) His key advice was, write less, but write everyday.

BhanuDidi joined from US. Guruji was with us and we had very good discussion about use of social media to cultivate human values. Social media should be used such a way, that it remove the misunderstanding and bridge the gap. Wakeup and see yourself in everyone. Tweet about humanity. The social media should not be used to spread hate. Do not abuse. Express opinion, with facts. Do not worry about : what is divine, where is God? Do you want to know, who are you? Then meditate. Alcohol is root cause behind many criminal activities. Discuss on Social Media. Educate people about disadvantage of Alcohol. Spiritualism is only concept, without experience. Bring it to social media. Discuss about vegetarianism. It is way of life, which bring improvement to consciousness. Our ancient Rishis had internal network. Now we have Internet. How easily we all connect with each other. Networking is essential, but it should be with people, not with PC. People have face, behind the Facebook. We should maintain all faces, which are books. Social media is very powerful and it is more than boon if utilize effectively in positive way. We give daily 2 hours to ourselves for shower, food etc. Can we spare 1 hour for country? In US, we have more gun shop than grocery shops. The kids who play video game, they do not realize that if we shoot with real gun, the person will die. Some country control media house and ban social media. As usual, Guruji's session are always full with wit and wisdom.

Declaimer: This blog article is not verbatim of speech by anyone. I have put my best effort to capture the essence as per my understanding, my interpretation. Any corrections are welcome. The conference had two sessions. Morning 10 AM to 1 PM and evening 6 PM onward I have attended only evening session. So this article-series will be only about evening sessions.